Blu Desktop (refurb, AMD) for $699

[Kadath]

Seems like not a bad deal if you dont mind either refurb or AMD:

http://www.buy.com/retail/product.asp?sku=207899180&adid=17654&dcaid=17654

not entirely sure what 'in stock soon' means, they may already be sold out or they havent actually gotten in stock yet and are preselling a pack of refurbs they are expecting in.

 

[alik4041]

WOW! That's a lot of hardware for cheap.

 

[RussianHAXOR]

This thing screams HTPC with some serious juice to it.

 

[ShepsCrook]

Dang... That's a nice setup for that price.

 

[Xee]

Hmm. Pretty nice. Reviews say it has no digi audio out for speakers or firewire for importing video though.

 

[pxc]

Fry's has a similar model without the Blu-Ray drive for $599 (new, not refurb) in store and online:

differences between the models:
Vista HP x64 and 4GB instead of 3GB and 32-bit
780G vs GF6150 chipset board + HD 2400XT (HD 3200 is around the same speed as a 2400Pro, but has better video playback features)
2 x 320GB instead of 2 x 500GB
DVD burner vs Blu-Ray
2 x firewire vs none
1 year warranty vs 90 day warranty

Either motherboard may have a header for digital audio out. It's pretty common.

But you can get a free after rebate Canon all in one if that makes up for anything. And it's new. The retail Sony BD-ROM drive is on sale this weekend for $139 if you need one. http://shop1.frys.com/product/5525640

 

[w1retap]

Both are a pretty good deal for someone looking to not build their own. If you do go with your own, you can save a little bit of money though.

 

[pxc]

Yeah, probably by a little. I just built a Phenom 9600 system, a better deal but it relied on rebates for several items (all from Fry's except as noted):

CoolerMaster Elite 340 $20AR
Antec TruePower Trio 430W $15AR
Retail Phenom 9600 $105
cheap-o ECS 6100PM-M2 $35 (part of a combo, used the X2 5200+ elsewhere)
Corsair 4 x 1GB DDR2-800 $30AR
HD-DVD/DVD-ROM $17 (geeks.com)
Seagate 320GB 7200.10 $65
evga 8800GTS 320MB $70AR (buy.com)
Vista Ultimate x64 $free (WFP thing from a few months ago... 2 licenses free!)

After shipping on a couple of items and tax, it was ~$390 total after rebates. Rebates were about $140 and if I had to pay for Vista HP, that would be about $90 at Fry's for the 32-bit or 64-bit version. Including those two, it would cost about the same as either Gateway system, minus extra software (Works? bleh) and a keyboard/mouse/cheap speakers.

For the prebuilts, i'd rather have the one with the 780G chipset. It should be more upgradeable and possibly more overclockable than the GF6150 one.